Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Brandon Inge story, and the fan reaction to it, refuses to go away. As much as everyone would like Inge to become a non-story, the MSM refuses to let it go.

Inge isn't helping matters with his clumsy "I hate catching" and "I didn't mean I actually HATED catching" comments to the media. The more he talks, the the deeper he digs himself into a self-made hole.

At Mlive today, Danny Knobler writes a very disjointed article about Inge. He touches on Inge's comments, many fans being upset while others are enthusiastic in their support, his playing center field, and where Jim Leyland would play the bipolar sounding Inge next.

That's where I found the COTD. A commenter named huskytiger takes all those who think Inge needs to shut up and play to task, especially bloggers, by calling them "negative."

The two previous comments point out that most bloggers tend to be negative. However, the fact that most fans who attend the games are supportive of Inge, as they should be. He has played his heart out for the Tigers for 7 years. My belief is that the majority of Tigers fans like Inge but don't blog as they are membors of the "silent majority" It reminds me of a few years ago when one of the area papers did a survey on a member of the Tigers which showed that the majority supported the individual. A blogger wrote that the survey had to be wrong, all you had to do was read the blogs to see that most people didn't like him. Again, the majority don't blog, the most negative "fans" tend to.

This chubbycat character hits on a couple of my pet peeves. One being the overblown claim that "Bloggers are always negative." Not to forget the old chestnut, "Real fans aren't critical of their team."

Fatbengal claims he's part of fandom's "silent majority?" I prefer the more truthful "sheep." Maybe the more esoteric "lemmings."

I blog because I LOVE the Detroit teams. I blog because I learned long ago the teams, and the media that covers them, are full of shit, and discovered the world wide web has much more compelling, non sugar coated sports commentary. In fact, I'd consider the vast majority of bloggers to be much more knowledgeable than the average fan. They watch all the games, read all the articles, dissect personnel on the field and front office, and know enough to take anything said by the teams, and the media, with a huge grain of salt.

Think of it this way...

In pro wrestling, fans are either "marks" or "smarts." A mark, more or less, buys into wrestling storylines, not caring or knowing enough to delve any deeper than what they see on TV every week. On the other hand, a "smart" knows all the behind the scenes shenanigans, locker room brown nosing and script doctoring that goes into deciding who wins and loses a match.

You can say much the same about Detroit sports fans. You have your fan who believes everything they have spoon fed to them by the pro teams and MSM. They are the "fans" who think Matt Millen is just a couple of players away from making the Lions a contender, are convinced the Pistons can trade Lindsey Hunter, Jason Maxiell and a draft pick for LeBron James, claim Chris Osgood is a great goalie because he's "cute" or think Pudge Rodriguez had a good year because "He hit .281!"

They also believe in unicorns, pixie dust, and think reality television isn't scripted.

Then you have the bloggers and "internet fans" who question a team's front office for making questionable roster moves, call out the media for being lazy and know Pudge Rodriguez had an awful season thanks to an abysmal OBP of .294.

If that makes me "negative," so be it. It also makes me a knowledgeable fan with a voice, one not afraid to use his bully pulpit.

And this fan with a voice thinks Inge needs to clam up, sack it up and play where he's asked. Is that negative enough?

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Who"s behind the scenes at TWFE?

I'm Al Beaton, aka Big Al, a life-long Detroit sports fan. Being fed up with the lack of quality sports coverage by the MSM, I started "The Wayne Fontes Experience.". 1100+ posts later, it remains to be seen if that was a good idea... (And no, I'm not Eddie Munster, despite what my widow's peak may have you thinking)